The $430 million, 250,000 square foot containerboard plant now under construction on Packard Road is one of the largest industrial projects in the state but it is under siege by union workers led by Niagara County Building Trades who claim that electrical workers and other trades members have been excluded from the bulk of the work in favor of out-of-state labor.

Russ Quarantello, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 237, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct last week at the site for walking on the sidewalk near the property. Local workers were picketing the hiring practices of the Canadian firm Norampac which received a $142 million government incentive package to undertake the project.

Quanantello, after keeping his fired up men calm, went to check on the status of a truck of one his men that Normapac officials threatened to tow. Without delaying traffic, he merely crossed the sidewalk where the gates were. Police handcuffed and shackled him. Speaking of his arrest, Quarantello told the Reporter: “I guess I felt embarrassed to have shackles on my ankles at first, but then I started to think, ‘you know, maybe these people don’t know it, but I felt like ‘I’m fighting for the people of Niagara County, not just union, but union and no-nunion.’” Quarantello was held for sven hours hours before being released in Niagara Falls City Court.

Quarantello has singled out the Quebec-based manufacturer Norampac for hiring electricians from Louisiana and Wisconsin to do work he believes members of his union could do just as well at a fair price. About $16 million of the estimated $19 million in electrical work has gone to out of state contractors.

“We don’t need somebody from Louisiana to come in here and do our work,” said Quarantello, saying his workers are every bit as technologically sophisticated as any electrical workers in the country. Union leaders say now that the strike is under way at the site, Norampac’s out of state contractors have withdrawn some of thier Spanish-speaking workers out of fear of increased public scrutiny of the work force.

Norampac has tried to tap down the union attacks by maintaining that many construction workers are being hired from New York, at one time saying that $135 million of the $150 million in contracts awarded to date went to firms from within the state. Factully, this may be a public relations ruse. By hiring Syracuse based Construction Management to funnel work to out of state companies, Norampac can technically say they gave the work to New York companies, knowing full well these companies in turn hired out of state companies.

The Reporter will gladly review Norampac’s books and contracts to determine how much actual work was done by local workers.

Thomas Pryce, business manager for Iron Workers Local No. 9, says the number of workers from Niagara Falls is little more than a drop in the bucket given the huge public incentives awarded to Norampac to build the paper mill, expected to create 108 jobs when completed.

“The construction workers of Niagara County have this one opportunity in 2012 to benefit from this development,” said Pryce, “There’s no reason on God’s green earth to bring people half way across the country to do [work that can be done) by the general workforce. It’s been a tough nut to crack. They seem locked in with certain contractors even to their own detriment.”
Richard Palladino, business manager of Laborers’ Local 91, says he’s convinced there are undocumented workers employed by Norampac.

“You’re going to see, they will be lucky to get $9 bucks an hour,” Palladino said. “And when the job is over, they will not pay them. Right now with the heat on the job, they will try to stay clean. As soon as the heat is off, the (illegals) will be back.”

In a harsh attack on the Canadian firm, Palladino said of the company “they are arrogant, anti-union, French-Canadians and you know the history of the French. The Americans bailed them out three times and I have no respect for the French and less respect for the French-Canadians.”

On the day before the strike began last week, union leaders say that out of 150 cars in the parking lot at the site, 50 percent were out of state.

State and local leaders went out of their way to persuade Normpac to build in New York, offering as part of the $142 million incentive package $60 million in brownfield tax credits administered by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

The package was put together by Empire State Development, the governor’s lead development agency, along with Buffalo Niagara Enterprise and other local partners. The Niagara County IDA gave local tax incentives including steep property tax discounts.

From the top on down, leaders praised the efforts that brought in Norampac. Now local labor leaders are wondering why they are being left out and more than that, more than just union, why are local workers left out in favor of out of state companies.

FACTS AND NOTES:

** Norampac, while getting New York State and local taxpayer incentives, hires out of town contractors, who, in turn, hire out of town workers. Local taxpayers subsidize Norampac and their workforce from Wisconsin to Tennesee. **Triad Construction Inc. of Wisconsin, subcontracts with Tower Construction of Chattanooga, Tennessee who, in turn, hires workers from Guatemala that can’t speak English. Tower hires an interpreter from Tennessee. **The Reporter confirmed that Chad Beard, a Louisiana contractor, applied for a Niagara Falls city electrical license three months before the Norampac job began. His license covers much of the electrical work for out of state workers who don’t have a license. ** Another unlicensed electrical contractor, Faith Technology of Wisconsin, “bought a license” by hiring Gaines Elec., just to use their license. **The parking lot at Norampac looks like the Niagara Falls State Park with plates from all over the USA. **The Reporter obtained a copy of an astonishing letter, written by an executive of C.R. Meyer Inc, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, dismissing the last local #91 Union laborers, because they joined the picket. Dated 6-28, it reads, “Banned from site for taking part and participating in picket line. In violation of owner’s policy. **Advertisement offers out of state workers $31 per hours, plus $100 a day for lodging to work at Norampac job. Most Union packages pay around $54 per hour with benefits. ** Joke told on the site.“We know when union electricians are on the job because we hear the chugger. But when the non union (Triad) is on the job, we hear Guatemalans.”